Malloy in — third party out of mayor’s race

Updated 6:44 pm, Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Governor Dannel P. Malloy, right, chats with Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch during a Bridgeport Regional Business Council luncheon at the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Malloy finally called on voters to back Finch for a third term in the Sept. 16 party primary. less

Governor Dannel P. Malloy, right, chats with Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch during a Bridgeport Regional Business Council luncheon at the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Malloy finally ... more

BRIDGEPORT — Tuesday was good for Mayor Bill Finch’s political prospects.

After standing on the sidelines during the Democratic Town Committee’s contentious endorsement process, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy visited Bridgeport and finally called on voters to back Finch for a third term in the Sept. 16 party primary.

Meanwhile the Working Families Party, which has caused headaches for the incumbent and his allies, said it will likely not get involved in the mayor’s race, despite having no love for Finch or chief rival, ex-Mayor Joseph Ganim.

Finch barely won the town committee’s endorsement last week with 49 delegate votes to Ganim’s 41.

“I know what it takes to be a mayor, to change the direction of a community,” Malloy, formerly Stamford’s chief executive, told the crowd Tuesday on the city’s East End. “Why would you change direction? This doesn’t make any sense. Things are moving in the right direction.”

Malloy, who has been pushing for leniency for certain, low-level offenders, did not attack Ganim, who was imprisoned for corruption and wants a second chance.

Malloy did emphasize that Finch is someone he and voters can “trust.”

The Working Families Party has endorsed Malloy. But that group’s executive director, Lindsay Farrell, made it clear she is no fan of Finch or Ganim.

“Mayor Finch has run a corrupt political machine interested in furthering his own power,” Farrell said in a statement. “Joe Ganim’s record is no better.”

Still, Farrell said, given Finch’s and Ganim’s “poisonous influence on this race” and for other, unspecified reasons, “it is unlikely” her group will get involved.

Farrell did not mention it, but it is understood that some of her party’s Bridgeport supporters are divided in this mayoral contest. Another mayoral candidate, Democrat Howard Gardner, has also been Working Families’ ally.

Of the group of Democrats vying for the mayor’s office, Mary-Jane Foster is most harmed by Malloy‘s and the Working Families’ announcements. She has worked with both.

Foster downplayed Malloy’s endorsement of Finch as routine.

“He’s in real trouble,” Foster said of Finch. “And an incumbent governor does not endorse a challenger. That’s extraordinarily rare.”

Of the Working Families Party, Foster said Farrell’s description of Finch and Ganim, “is all the more reason why (they) should be involved in this election.”

State Rep. Jack Hennessy, who supports Foster, was disappointed with the Working Families Party’s decision, saying the group was “just taking a pass” on a key race.

He said the third party has a proven record of strong campaign infrastructure.

But Tom Swan, whose good-government Connecticut Citizens Action Group last week endorsed Foster, said Finch and Ganim will tear each other apart ahead of the Democratic primary, giving his candidate her opening.